Brett David Sinkinson (born 30 December 1971)
Scrum.com is a New Zealand born

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who played for the

Wales national rugby union team The Wales national rugby union team () represents the Welsh Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international agai ...

. A flanker, he was known for his mobility and hard tackling. He never played for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. After representing Wales it was discovered that he was ineligible to play for Wales when he revealed his grandfather Sydney Sinkinson was born in Oldham in England instead of

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

in Wales as had previously been indicated by him. The scandal that followed was termed "

grannygate Grannygate is the name given to several different sporting scandals, typically regarding eligibility of players for national teams. A rugby union version of Grannygate occurred in Wales in March 2000, a rugby league version occurred in New Zealand ...

". Sinkinson was barred from playing for Wales but later returned to the Wales team after legally qualifying through the residency rules. Sinkinson now resides in his home country New Zealand with his wife Tracey and his two children.

References

External links

Wales profile
New Zealand rugby union players Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players 1971 births Rugby union flankers Neath RFC players Living people People educated at Whakatane High School New Zealand people of English descent New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Wales 1999 Rugby World Cup players Chiefs (Super Rugby) players {{wales-rugbyunion-bio-stub